Commitment To Excellence
by PoeticJustice628
Summary: A quiet concert band french horn player finds herself dragged into the marching band. In a world of mean section leaders and missing mouth-peices friends mean everything, and roll-stepping means more...


Clarra and Lilly walked through the band rooms doors, laughing together.

Clarra was average height but well built, with a deep voice and long auborn hair that she kept braided. She wore practical clothes, almost never seen in anything other than jeans and a t-shirt. She was rational, down to Earth and a realist. Her face was average, not quite pretty or ugly. She had brown eyes, a nose, two ears, and a mouth, all in the right place. She was loud and boisterous, always laughing about something or another.

Lilly was small and thin, with long, thick, glossy brown hair that hung halfway down her back. She was shy but sweet. She wore no particular style of clothes, in jeans one day, pajamas the next, and a mini-skirt the day after. She had gray-blue sparkling eyes with long lashes. Her lips were full and red and almost didn't need lipstick. But as exotic as she looked, the girl was completely introverted. She was cautious and shy.

Clarra played souzaphone, while Lilly played French horn. Clarra was a sophmore and well known as someone you couldn't push around. Lilly was a freshman, no one really knew her. Clarra and Lilly had grown up together, next door neighbors. Clarra stood up for Lilly.

"Yo Clar!" someone called from the other room of the band room.

"Yo Damien!" Clarra called back, raising her hand. "Come on Lil, come meet Damien" she grabbed her friend's hand and dragged her over to the xylophone set up.

"Damien, this is Lil. Be nice to her or I'll kick your ass." Clar said, hugging the dark-haired boy behind the xylophone.

Damien acted scared, "Oh well then, hello miss Lillian." He did a huge sweeping bow. "How may I assist you?" He took her hand and kissed it.

Lil blushed and smiled.

"Drop it Dame… Ignore him Lilly, he's a charming drama nerd." Clarra said, rolling her eyes.

Damien stood up, emerald green eyes smiling sweetly at her. "I believe the term you're looking for is actor… charming actor" he said, rolling the 'r' at the end of actor. Lil giggled as Clarra rolled her eyes.

"But anyways, that's me. Damien Woodrow, first class actor and percussionist. I play bells." He nodded at her, spinning a mallet.

"Bells?" Lil asked, a confused look on her face.

"Xylophone," Damien classified. "God Clarra, where'd you find this girl?" Lil looked down.

"Drop it Dame, he's kidding Lilly." Clarra slapped her friend playfully.

"So… whad'ya play?" Damien asked, leaning on his bell-set, arms crossing in front of her.

"French ho-" Lil began, smiling.

"Mellophone." Clarra interrupted.

"Mellophone?" Lil asked, surprised.

"You can't march with a French horn honey, mellophone is almost the same thing." Clarra said, looking at her clueless friend.

"MELLOPHONE?" Damien asked, trying not to laugh. "As in you have Suzanna as a section leader?" He forced back a laugh.

"Shoosh, Damien, she'll be fine." Clarra said, shooting him a warning look.

All of a sudden, a flash of blonde bobbed between them.

"Who's the new mellophone?" the new-comer asked, bobbing about them.

She was blonde with green-gold eyes. She was short but thin as a model. She dressed in comfy clothes, and carried no case.

"Hola Tor." Clarra said, waving to the bouncing blonde head.

"Hiya Clarra, Hiya Damien." She smiled and waved to the other two. She turned to Lil. "Hi person I don't know." She smiled brightly at the girl. "So, who's the new mellophone victim?" She said, settling down.

"Uh, I think I am…" Lil said, raising her hand meekly and blushing.

"Tor, this is Lil." Clarra introduced.

"Hey. My name's Tori. I'm a guardie!" she took Lil's hand and shook it.

"Oh no…" Damien said, shaking his head. "You are more than just a guardie, Miss Tori! Guardies are make-up toting, condom carrying, blonde, stick-spinning retarded clones. You, my love, are not only beautiful and color guard captain. You're graceful and you're one of the best sabers in the COUNTRY. You never drop your flag and you actually CARE about the band. Therefore you are 10000 times better than the rest of them."

"Dame, hon, I told you this a hundred times and I'll say it again. Not interested." She smiled sweetly at him.

"I know." He said with a dramatic sigh. "But alas, I live for punishment" He pantomimed someone stabbing him in the chest with a knife, using his mallet for effect. He fell to the ground with a dramatic sounds.

"Damn straight." Clarra said smiling.

Lil giggled.

"Try not to scare her too much guys, she's still new to the whole marching band, thing." Clarra said sympathetically.

"Aw…" Damien said, "What's the fun in that?" He whined, sitting up on the floor.

A voice came from behind her.

"Oh look, it's Clarra the she-man and her band of losers." A soft feminine voice said prettily from behind her.

Clarra spun, a soft smile on her lips. "Oh look it's Sam and her army of whores. How's the color guard? Did they actually learn to march yet?" She asked sweetly.

"At least we have boyfriends…" Sam shot back.

"At least we have friends…" Clarra retored.

Tori stepped out from behind Clarra. "Oh, hey Sammy! It's been forever! What was that you were saying to my friends? I mean, you wouldn't want someone to think that you're insulting your CAPTAIN'S friends. Right Sammy?" she smiled sweetly. "Someone could get the wrong impression. And that's how rumors get started, and rumors can lead to, oh, I don't know, laps? LOTS of laps…" Tori said, smiling sweetly at Sam.

Sam bristled, "Sorry Tori." She said cold and steely. "Let's go." She said motioning to her friends.

"Thanks Tori, we owe you." Clarra said, smiling at the blonde-girl.

"Aw, anytime. Now what was that you said about color guard not being able to march?" Tori asked, leaning against the wall.

"They can't." Clarra said, laughing, "You can. There's a difference." She laughed loudly.

"Which is why, you're captain and she's not." Damien said, smiling.

"Well, that and she's a insert non-band word here." Clarra said smiling.

Tori laughed.

Lil was running a hand idly over the xylophone set.

"You like?" Damien asked, smiling at her.

"It's pretty." Lil said smiling shyly.

"Want me to play you something?" Damien asked, smiling charmingly at her.

"Uh okay." Lil blushed.

"Aw now Dame, don't you go breaking her heart." Clarra said softly, looking at her longtime friend.

He smiled at Clarra, twirling the mallets in his hands. He placed them gently on the keys and began to play.

Lil watched in awe and even Tori was silent as she watched him play. He was amazing.

"You're good." Lil managed to meep. She was in awe.

"I'm okay." He said shrugging.

"Good? Okay?" Clarra asked, her eye brows high. "Good and okay don't get you into DCI!"

"DCI?" Lil asked, a confused look on her face.

"Drum corp international." Damien said meekly, blushing.

"Oh look, it's Suzanne la bitch" Damien said, glaring hotly at the door.

A small girl, with cold onyx eyes and an average build, walked through the door. She had dark black hair the flowed long and stick thin to the middle of her back. She was pretty but the whole room held their breath as she walked through the door. Her case looked bigger than she did as she carried it into the room.

She turned to the shy flute standing by the door.

"Excuse me, Miss Underclassmen, can you please get out of my way?" she said sweetly.

The shy flute just looked up at her, a shocked look on her face.

"To be in the MARCHING band, you have to know how to at least walk." Suzanne said to the girl, pushing her aside.

Damien leaned over to Lil and whispered in her ear. "Meet your section leader."

Lil gulped.

* * *

R&R please? 


End file.
